Isis in Iraq: Residents pick up pieces after devastating Daesh New Baghdad attack

Iraqis in the capital's New Baghdad district saw the extent of the damage on Tuesday 12 January caused by militant attacks the day before that killed at least 18 people and wounded 40 others, the biggest death toll in three months.

The attacks, claimed by Islamic State (Isis), included a car bomb, then gunmen went on a shooting spree before detonating their suicide bomb vests inside a shopping complex.

IS (Daesh) said it was targeting Shi'ite Muslims in their attacks. The ultra-hard-line Sunni group often targets Shi'ite civilians in Iraq. Isis militants controlling swathes of Iraq's north and west claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Seven people, including two policemen, were killed in the car bomb blast near the Jawaher mall in the predominantly Shi'ite district of Baghdad Jadida, police and medical sources said. Five more people were shot dead by the gunmen storming the mall, and six others were killed when those same assailants detonated their explosive vests, the sources said.

A local man, Iyad, said: "Yesterday, there was an explosion in New Baghdad here, around 8-9 gunmen came out of cars, attacked the mall in New Baghdad and a car in the other street near the mall blew up and people died. They had machine guns and fired at Raad's shop over there, his car was burnt and he was hit.

"A lot of people were martyred, lots of elderly people, women and children were killed. All these houses you see around us were destroyed and this area, New Baghdad, has become an area of devastation."

In Muqdadiya, east of Baghdad, two bombs killed at least 23 and wounded 51 on the same day.